question about limits

[jwmiller33]

i have a question about keeping your limit of fish in MN. a friend and myself were talking about fishing and we were in a disagreement about something.

my question is, once you get a legal limit of fish, regardless of what species they are, is it illegal to keep fishing, even if you plan on releasing everything else you catch? it was my understanding that once you have a limit of fish, regardless of what they are, you pretty much have to pack your bags and go home, unless your with another person and the other person doesnt have their limit yet. my friend was telling me that you can keep fishing after you have a limit, and just "decide" to target a different species...

i looked thru the entire rules/regulations book and couldnt find anything about this, so could someone shed some light on this for me?

my take on this issue that i was explaining to my buddy is that say you are walleye fishing, and you get your limit of 6 eaters... you keep fishing, with intentions of just catching and releasing or targeting a different species, however, the problem is you could accidentally kill another walleye if they completely swallowed your jig, and you would end up killing a 7th eye, so you would be over your limit. this could happen even if you "decided" to start chasing a different species

i guess i am just looking for clarification because i like my fishing party and i to always stay 100% legal

[Steve Foss]

my question is, once you get a legal limit of fish, regardless of what species they are, is it illegal to keep fishing, even if you plan on releasing everything else you catch?

Based on my reading of the regs, yes, IF you are targeting the same species for which you already have a limit. You can have a limit of walleyes and keep fishing with walleye lures using walleye tactics on walleye spots, but if the C.O. checks you and sees you have a limit and are still fishing, it might be kinda hard to convince him/her you have switched over and are pursuing crappies or perch.

Or to put it in the terms of my own back yard, if I have two lakers on the ice (limit is 2) and I keep targeting lakers, I am breaking the law. How is a C.O. to know what I am targeting? They are not dummies.

[jwmiller33]

thanks steve! i read the entire rules/regs book and it doesnt state anything about the matter specifically.

what about if you are on mille lacs, or a lake with higher pressure and more CO presence, and you have a limit of eyes but keep fishing for perch but using the same lures in the same spot? what would a CO do in that case?

[Steve Foss]

what about if you are on mille lacs, or a lake with higher pressure and more CO presence, and you have a limit of eyes but keep fishing for perch but using the same lures in the same spot? what would a CO do in that case?

Whatever the C.O. wants to do.

I'm not being a smartarse. There's just a lot of discretionary leeway in a C.O.'s work life.

For example, if I'm a C.O. and I'm watching you through Big Eye binocs from the far shore and I see you catching a mixed bag of 'eyes and perch, and you are keeping some of both and keep fishing after you have your limit of one or the other, I'm not too likely to make an issue of it unless my quota for the month is lagging or my wife has biotched at me or the dog piddled on the carpet. However, if I see you catching nothing but walleyes, and I see you ice and keep your limit fish, and I see you keep fishing in exactly the same place with the same lures in the same way, even if you continue to let every 'eye back down the hole, my reading of the regs says I can bust you all day long every day.

[jwmiller33]

Whatever the C.O. wants to do.

I'm not being a smartarse. There's just a lot of discretionary leeway in a C.O.'s work life.

that is very true... every CO handles situations a little differently.. maybe i will ask one the next time i get checked

thanks again

[Nisswaguy]

As soon as you catch your 7th eye, you are over your limit. Period! Even if you don't intend to keep it, once it's in your boat you are over your possession. That's why cull tournaments will have a 5 fish limit - so you can keep fishing for a bigger fish without becoming illegal.

[BrdHunter01]

I know I've been checked when catching craps up on Red (when the crappies still existed) and we had our limit of craps when the DNR knocks on the door. At the same time a buddie was reeling a fish in. He said "if that one swims away your fine"

I've always though it was ok to fish after your limit as long as you threw everything back. Now if you kill one on the way up? I'm not sure what would happen then.... I know many people that keep fishing after they have their limits just for the fun of it.... I don't see anything wrong with it as long as you toss em all back. IMO its better than someone else catching them and keeping them.... maybe he'll be their for the next time I want a meal....

[CAMAN]

Your limit is what is in the livewell/bucket/sitting on the ice/whatever. It is NOT what you have hanging on the end of your line or sitting in your hand. It is perfectly fine fishing after you have caught your limit just as long as the fish get released immedietly and not placed in or culled with other fish.

Think of it this way, you're fishing for walleye and you have 5 in the bucket. You get a bite and reel it up and there on the end of the line are two walleye hooked. If you go by how you guys are thinking, you are over your limit and should be ticketed, correct?

[BrdHunter01]

As soon as you catch your 7th eye, you are over your limit. Period! Even if you don't intend to keep it, once it's in your boat you are over your possession. That's why cull tournaments will have a 5 fish limit - so you can keep fishing for a bigger fish without becoming illegal.

Culling sounds much worse than catching fish for fun..... The DNR states "Once a daily or possession limit of fish has been reached, no culling or live well sorting is allowed."

No culling should be allowed period! Thats just my opinion....

[Brad B]

what about guys that only catch and relaease and won't keep any. with your thinking you would have to stop catching that species after you get your limit even if you catch and release. so as a example what about these guy that have runs where they catch and release 20 + catfish on horseshoe lake(not picking on the cat guys but I know this does happen up there and I don't have a problem with it). with your line of thinking they would be way over the limit. my personal take on it is as follows. if you catch a fish and you release it and it doesn't die then you don't have to count it towards your limit now if it ends up dead then you would have to count it towards your limit.

[splakeshaker]

As soon as you catch your 7th eye, you are over your limit. Period! Even if you don't intend to keep it, once it's in your boat you are over your possession. That's why cull tournaments will have a 5 fish limit - so you can keep fishing for a bigger fish without becoming illegal.

That's how I roll. 5 in possession and continue to fish for a pig. If I chose to keep a sixth..I'm heading home. Better safe than sorry. If, by chance, I switch species, I use completely different methods and fish what I feel are non-territory area for the species I filled out on.

[timk]

from what i have been told you should stop one shy and then you can keep fishing so the worst that happens is you go home one shy. i don't target one fish very often so i end up with a mixed bag. so i don't know how they can say what you are after if you have got three kinds of fish out of the same hole

[Maverick]

I guess I don't get it, but I might be kind of slow. If you are fishing for, let's say, walleyes and you are putting them on your stringer or in your livewell so that you can take some home to eat or freeze and you catch your limit why would you keep fishing. Hats off to CPR guys or the "keep a few and let the rest go guys", they can catch and release till their thumbs fall off. But, why would you keep fishing once you reach your limit. While technically it many not be against the law, you, the sportsman, run the risk of killing a perfectly good walleye either right then and there or maybe it will die later. And, yes, you are right the CPR's might have some mortality, so they need to be careful with how they do it.

I wish more fisherman would do what we do in our camp. We set a minimum of 14 inches and keep nothing over 20inches. With those rules in place if the people in the boat get their limit it's the rule that they head in and start cleaning. Granted, it is rare that that happens, but as long as they are in my camp it is the rule.

Got your limit in the boat, time for cards and a drink. Maybe even a good cigar.

[KG243]

Good thing I can't fish worth a darn! I never have to worry about my limit being filled!

[BobT]

I'm not sure, guys. How do you interpret this?

Quote:

Immediately released or returned to the water– Fish must not be retained longer than is needed at the site of capture to unhook, identify, measure, and photograph. Placing the fish in any type of container or on a stringer is not immediately released. Any fish not immediately released is considered to be “reduced to possession.”

Daily and possession limits (bags)– For most species of fish, the daily and possession limit is the same. One exception would be the inland limit on yellow perch, which is 20 per day and 40 in possession. The daily and possession limits include fish possessed by the person at all locations including such places as livewell, cold storage, at home, or at a resort. Daily limit is the number of fish an angler can take in one calendar day. Eating those fish or gifting them away on the same day does not allow an angler to possess additional fish taken in the same calendar day.

When I read this, a fish isn't in possession until it is placed into storage. It clearly states "such places as in a livewell" or "cold storage." The first part doesn't define a fish as in possession unless it is not immediately released. And immediately released allows for time to photograph the fish.

It does appear to be a grey area.

[Maverick]

Not "grey" at all.

[DTro]

How is it gray?

That photograph clause was specifically plugged in there a couple of years ago to eliminate the confusion of “possession”. Now if you want to talk about bait related issues, get some popcorn

I would say use a little common sense here. If you want to take home a limit, then catch your limit and go home. If you want to spend more time fishing, keep one under the limit and continue to do so. Not because there might be a loophole here or there, but because it makes sense. After all, it is only one fish. Not only that, but what happens if you have a limit and then gut hook another one. It might be perfectly legal to stuff it back down the hole, but wouldn’t you hate doing that?

Being a good sportsman goes a lot further than following the rule book to a T.

[bikeoutback]

Well put dtro. I'm a Northern fisherman and so 3 is the limit. The first two in the size range that I want to keep get iced leaving one to go. Usually leave that open if we are fishing all day to see what we pull up, if I gut hook and kill one then it also get's iced and all my tip ups come out of the water.

If you could shoot one deer you wouldn't sit in a tree stand with a loaded rifle after you shot one and simply tell the CO you were going to just aim at one but not kill it would you?

I'm also not a great fisherman so only fish I ever have to worry about it with is Northern usually.

[candiru]

I specifically remember the DNR issuing a press release a few years ago that said that you can no longer fish for a specific species once you reach the limit on that species. IE: once you keep 3 northerns you are done fishing for northerns.

I would guess that if you are guenuinely catching a mixed bag you are fine.

[mr_jman]

Boy I didn't realize how confusing this topic really is. When I read the first post my response would have been... "Why not keep fishing for fun" I have always continued to fish for fun because although rare I have caught my limit in an hour or so BUT I HAVE THE WHOLE DAY OFF OF WORK and I love fishing so when I go I don't think I've ever fished less than 3 hours unless it was weather related.

Before I got through all the posts I thought to myself that I would just do the "keep one under your limit" thing and keep fishing. I also didn't realize you couldn't release one out of your livewell... Say if you hook one and it floats back up, You can't release another one that is still alive and flopping on the ice or in your bucket etc.? to keep that one that died.

FINALLY MY LAST SITUATION QUESTION.... You are using a lodge service that drives you out for the day on LOW or anywhere else where they leave you. You get there and catch your limit of fish... Now your suppose to sit there twiddling your thumbs the rest of the day till they come get you????? You've got your limit, now you can't use the ONE TIME ALL YEAR you fish on true trophy potential waters to go after a Trophy? - If you catch a MONSTER, you can't snap some photos and release OR if its truely one for the wall, you can't release an eater still swimming in the bucket?

[Maverick]

If that did happen, then they didn't follow up with a law change. Also, if that was true and you already had a limit of fish in your freezer you wouldn't be able to target that fish. I like dtro's common sense approach as stated above. Personally, I like to keep a limit of walleye and if they are biting good I get real picky on what I keep. I like the 17 and 18 inchers. When we get to one or two within our limit, them we get really picky until the limit is possessed then in we go.

[BobT]

Quote:

If you could shoot one deer you wouldn't sit in a tree stand with a loaded rifle after you shot one and simply tell the CO you were going to just aim at one but not kill it would you?

No but I might be sitting there with my loaded rifle hunting coyotes or rabbit. And yes, I have hunted rabbit with a 30-30 quite successfully I might add. Pretty much removed their head most of the time and I don't recall ever destroying one.

[Gunflint Guy]

You guys think it is confusing here, try Canada. I quit getting the Conservation License (only 1 trout vs 2 with the regular) because I took so much guff from the MNR CO's if I had a trout on the ice. They practically do a cavity search looking for that illegal 2nd trout and they can't understand why I am still fishing. Now I get the regular license and still only keep 1 trout.

[BobT]

dtro's approach is the sportsman's approach but that doesn't mean we need to throw around a bunch of untruths regarding what is legal, do we?

[CAMAN]

I specifically remember the DNR issuing a press release a few years ago that said that you can no longer fish for a specific species once you reach the limit on that species. IE: once you keep 3 northerns you are done fishing for northerns.

Please present the press release and/or the change in the regs book you are talking about. The only press release I can remember the DNR putting out regarding "possession" was the one stated earlier in the thread clarifying "immediate release".